With a wait list nearing 1,000 people, pediatric cannabis group Realm of Caring California is looking to grow.

The recently relocated non-profit foundation, which turns cannabis into a non-psychoactive oil that helps treat seizures in children and adults, hopes to eliminate its wait list by opening a $100,000 marijuana growing facility in central or northern California. Director Ray Mirzabegian expects a big chunk of the needed money — an estimated $30,000 — will come from a fundraising dinner hosted Monday night.

“If not by the end of this year, by spring of next year, there is not going to be a waiting list in California,” Mirzabegian said Monday to a roaring crowd. “Nothing matters to us but the children and the patients.”

Realm of Caring, which was founded in Colorado, opened an office in Los Angeles last year, but the city’s limitations on dispensaries forced it to close almost immediately. RoC treats children and adults with seizures, cancer and other ailments using Charlotte’s Web, an oil created from a branded strain of cannabis named for its first patient Charlotte Figi.

The oil, which contains high amounts of the compound cannabidiol but low amounts of THC, produced a series of anecdotal success stories that caused flocks of desperate families to relocate to Colorado — and later California.

Realm of Caring California now operates under the license of NoHo’s Finest, a dispensary in North Hollywood. They opened another office on the same property to keep their clients separate, according to Mirzabegian.

“Our clients are pediatrics and families show up with their children,” he said. “Even the best of the best (dispensaries), it’s not a family environment. It’s nothing against them, the demographics are different.”

Because state law limits each grow facility to 99 plants, the organization has to open another green house if it wants to meet the demand, he said.

Monday’s fundraiser gave families using the drug a chance to speak to sponsors and donors. Families described seeing child with severe epilepsy smile for the first time in years. Realm of Caring Foundation Executive Director Heather Jackson said her son, Zaki, one of the first to use Charlotte’s Web, went from needing hospice care to going 20 months without a seizure.

“Zaki is riding a bicycle now by the way,” Jackson said to cheers. “That’s anecdotal evidence for you.”

Pasadena resident Meg Coldwells’s son, Hayden, has been on the wait list since August. Coldwells turned to another cannabidiol product, AC/DC, to treat Hayden but she’s hoping to switch him to Charlotte’s Web soon.

“I didn’t want to wait so I found a private grower who could make the oil,” Coldwells said. “We are crossing our fingers that by the time we get to the end of our supply, we’ll be off the wait list for Realm of Caring.”

Hayden’s seizures dropped from dozens per day to around three or four, she said. The seizures that did happen had a shorter duration and were less intense. Other cannabidiol products work as well as Charlotte’s Web, but Realm of Caring gets most of the attention because it promises that any patient given the oil will never lose access to their supply.

Dr. Bonni Goldstein, whose sees dozens of pediatric patients using cannabis, found about 75 percent of those using cannabidiol products experienced seizure reductions.

The use of cannabidiol has little scientific research behind it. At least one pharmaceutical company will start clinical trials on the drug later this year, but for now little more than anecdotal evidence exists. Realm of Caring is moving forward with its own research and expects to launch trials in South America in the near future. The group wants to classify its product as hemp and ship it into the country from Uruguay.

Jason Henry is a staff reporter for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and Pasadena Star-News. He covers Pasadena, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech and the City of Industry. Raised in Ohio, Jason began his career at a suburban daily near Cleveland before moving to California in 2013. He is a self-identified technophile, data nerd and a wannabe drone pilot. The 2011 graduate of Bowling Green State University likes to shock his city friends by sharing his hometown's population.

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